They still call Australia home

Aug 22, 2009

Yesterday morning, the Age ran a huge story above the fold saying that the Australian ambassador to China had been “rushed back to Australia for emergency meetings”, and that “Australia’s relationship with China was deteriorating”.

They’re still pissed off about the Rio Tinto thing - and also about Australia granting a visa to Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer so she could attend a film festival in Melbourne. Basically the upshot is that China doesn’t like free speech even when it’s in other countries, nothing new here, move along.

The government-run China Daily newspaper even called Australian politicians “sinophobic”. Now, that’s completely not true - our pollies love to sin! Bob Hawke committed adultery with an air hostess; Malcolm Turnbull bore false witness against Kevin Rudd, and as for “thou shalt not steal”…

And then, down in the business section, was this little piece about an unexpected new market for Australian wine. It turns out that despite all of the Chinese government’s jawboning, Chinese citizens still want to move to Australia any way they can:

Australia’s booming wine exports to China are generating an unintended residue: a small but growing use of such sales to secure Australian residency. Winemakers and immigration lawyers say Chinese business people are targeting deals with the wine industry as one way to obtain proof of a commercial relationship with Australia - one of several boxes potential skilled migrants seek to tick to get the nod from immigration officials.